Introduction

Microbial ecology (or environmental microbiology) is the ecology of microorganisms: their relationship with one another and with their environment. It concerns the three major domains of life Eukaryota, Archaea, and Bacteria as well as viruses.

Microbial ecology analysis is a relatively new topic within the emergent biochar research field. As a consequence, each of the book chapters presented a discourse on knowledge development progress with regards to biochar impacts on soil micro and macro biological communities in a wide range of ecosystems and contexts. The method potentials, knowledge gaps, and future investigations required to address these, for research and application purposes, were highlighted specifically.

Therefore this chapter considers key in-book discussions to develop a précis of the future research opportunities and applications of (molecular) microbial ecology methods in biochar-augmented or impacted ecosystems. Also parallel to the need to address research and application questions by the newest approaches are reflections on biochar-directed policy where guidelines are required to underpin biochar research while investigative findings must, in turn, inform policy development.

Importance of microbial ecology

The study can help us improve our lives via the use of microbes in environmental restoration, food production, and bio-engineering of useful products such as antibiotics, food supplements, and chemicals. It helps measure the effects of climate change and land usage. It can also help answer some of our most practical questions such as: "How can we improve our lives?" as well as basic questions such as: "Why are we here?" It show us our place in the cosmos - how life originated and how it evolved, and how we are related to the great diversity of all other organisms.

Microbes encompass tremendous biodiversity, provide support to all living forms, including humans, and play an important role in many ecosystem services. The rules that govern microorganism community assembly are increasingly revealed due to key advances in molecular and analytical methods but their understanding remains a key challenge in microbial ecology. The existence of biogeographic patterns within microbial communities has been established and explained in relation to landscape-scale processes, including selection, drift, dispersal and mutation.

The effect of habitat patchiness on microorganisms’ assembly rules remains though incompletely understood. Here, we review how landscape ecology principles can be adapted to explore new perspectives on the mechanisms that determine microbial community structure. To provide a general overview, we characterize microbial landscapes, the spatial and temporal scales of the mechanisms that drive microbial assembly and the feedback between microorganisms and landscape structure.

We provide evidence for the effects of landscape heterogeneity, landscape fragmentation and landscape dynamics on microbial community structure, and show that predictions made for macro-organisms at least partly also apply to microorganisms. We explain why emerging meta community approaches in microbial ecology should include explicit characterization of landscape structure in their development and interpretation. We also explain how biotic interactions, such as competition, prey-predator or mutualist relations may influence the microbial landscape and may be involved in the above-mentioned feedback process. However, we argue that the application of landscape ecology to the microbial world cannot simply involve transposing existing theoretical frameworks.

The journal of “Medical Microbiology & Diagnosis” is a peer reviewed medical journal that includes a wide range of topics in this fields including Bacteriology, Clinical and Medical Diagnostics, Parasitology, Bacterial Infections and creates a platform for the authors to make their contribution towards the journal. The editorial office promises a thorough peer review of the submitted manuscripts to ensure quality.

Best Regards,

Mary Wilson,

Associate Managing Editor,

Medical Microbiology & Diagnosis

E-mail: microbiology@jpeerreview.com